Remote, unattended intrusion detection and surveillance capabilities are suited to the security of installations (commercial, government, and/or military) and perimeters, as well as for the protection of borders and other assets (e.g. associated with homeland defense). For example, Harris Corporation of Melbourne, Fla., and Assignee of the present application, produces an advanced sensor system product line that offers such features: the Harris Falcon Watch Remote Intrusion Detection and Surveillance system.
The Falcon Watch system includes the RF-5405 Intelligent Gateway, a communications node that receives alarms from multiple sensors and fuses the data into actionable reports for relay to command centers; and the RF-5400 Falcon II Sensor Node, which is integrated with Harris Falcon II tactical radios to provide situational awareness for the mobile user. The Falcon Watch system utilizes seismic detectors, which detect ground vibration caused by vehicles or pedestrians; magnetic detectors, which detect the movement of metal objects such as weapons or vehicles; and passive infrared (PIR) sensors, which detect the movement of thermal signatures such as vehicles or pedestrians. Inputs are processed at the point of detection and then the resulting alarms are transmitted by radio to a monitoring point.
Multiple radio relay nodes can be used to extend the system to protect larger-scale perimeters. The Falcon Watch system is modular and configurable to address a broad range of threat or topographical environments. The system is specifically designed to withstand the rigors of harsh environments while operating in remote locations for very extended periods without battery replacement. The Falcon Watch system detects the movement of vehicles and people while filtering out non-threatening, naturally occurring events. It transmits alarms to the Harris Falcon II RF-5800V-HH Advanced VHF Tactical Handheld Radio or the Falcon II RF-5800M-HH Advanced Multiband Tactical Handheld Radio.
This allows the user to receive real-time sensor alerts directly without carrying additional monitoring hardware. The sensor alarms can also be displayed by the Harris RF-6910 Situational Awareness System to provide a complete operational picture at a command center. The Falcon Watch Sensor system is available in various configurations. The Force Protection configuration is ideal for tactical, on-the-move missions, and for temporary set-ups and deployments. It is small, lightweight, easy to use, and features extended operational life as a result of its advanced low-power techniques. Tactical radio integration results in less equipment that the operator is required to carry and provides immediate notification of area intrusions. The Perimeter Surveillance configuration of the Falcon Watch Sensor system is designed for applications requiring more complex detection and surveillance, such as fixed installations and power-generation facilities.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0111884 to Cloutier et al. (and assigned to Harris Corporation) is directed to an unattended sensor for use in a surveillance system. The sensor includes a detector, a signal processor, a radio transceiver, a power source, and a controller which configures the sensor in either a sensor mode or a relay mode. The monitoring device may be a handheld radio device equipped with a transceiver for sending and receiving data and able to receive event messages from sensor nodes residing in the network. In addition, the radio device may include a signal processor adapted to receive the event messages and provide indicia of the event to the radio operator, e.g. an audible indicator or visual indicator on a display.
There is a need for such surveillance systems to have the capability to reliably classify objects under surveillance into various categories, such as vehicles, humans and animals. Current approaches include the use of a still image camera to take a picture of a subject with analysis to select a trophy image. Also, video cameras may be used. These approaches use a considerable amount of data.
The Army Research Lab provides a profile sensor that includes a linear array of optical trip lines for scanning a profile as a subject passes by the sensor as discussed in “Profiling sensor for ISR applications”, Ronald B. Sartain, Proc. Of SPIE, Vol. 6963, Apr. 16, 2008. The Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR) sensor does reduce the amount of data being processed and transmitted, but has poor resolution, requires a constant velocity of the subject passing by, and does not provide information regarding direction or action of the moving objects.
There is a further need for an unattended or remote surveillance capability that includes a reliable classification of objects while also reducing the amount of data needed to be transmitted. Furthermore, such needed classifications may also include the type of animal (e.g. cow, sheep horse etc.), type of vehicle (e.g. motorcycle, truck, car etc.), the quantity, the cargo (e.g. backpack, trailer etc.), the direction (e.g. left to right, or right to left), and/or the action (e.g. walking, running, digging etc.).